Crossroads

Standing at a crossroads

Trading souls for sub-prime mortgage deals

The corpse of Robert Johnson feeds

The worms beneath my heals

I flash my plundered pearly whites

My teeth are pretty perfect

But I’d dissolve them all in alcohol if I thought that you would like me

And without a second thought I would replace them all with Ivory

I sputter pesticides and genocide the honeybee

And then I turn them into moustache wax

With diabolic Chemistry

And I cannot go back

I have your culture in the duty free

A trophy fresh from Africa

My proudly butchered poetry

I grind the griot up

And turn him into instant coffee

Snort it off your woman’s body

And proclaim that she is free

So come up and make a deal

For I’ve got cultures far and near

I wouldn’t call myself a vulture

But I’m all about Veneer

Penny Kintsugi

I saw the lady of Penny Lane unpicking her scars daily
Cross-Stitching gold into her veins she'd had twenty years of training
And blazing trails across this tapestry
was more than simply kintsugi
She pulled the ink from magazines
And made them manifestos

She braved a tornado of 'Hey Babys' with a smile across her face
Because her mother she had taught her how fast love can turn to hate
And since the days she played with Play-Doh
They've been trying to remake her
Into innocence
Before her first acquaintance with a snake

And she wanted to make herself more than the sum of her parts
She wanted to fly far and study the arts

So when they barred the doors she shaved her head to be her own Rapunzel
And when they saw that she was shorn they were sure that she was fallen
And when she said please touch me there they were sure that she was wanton
But none of them could ever give her what she wanted

Because now she plays with Plato
Dismisses Socrates as so-so
She has no time for your narcissistic

Swag
Squad Goals
And Yolo

It's all I can do to follow
The beacons she is lighting
The lightning of her whip-crack footsteps
is absolutely blinding

And I suspect I'll never catch the lady of Penny Lane
But once she enters your life things will never be the same

Speak in your own voice

I was at a poetry slam in New York and the MC added a rule beyond the usual
No singing
No props
Only three minutes tops

He said, please
Under any circumstances,
Do not take off your clothes

And I thought how common is that here that they have to make a rule about it?

And then I thought about all the times I kept my shirt on during sex
How you asked me to turn the lights off so I wouldn't see the stretch marks on your legs

I saw poets wearing scarfs to hide the scars of nooses on their necks

And I didn't need to see the bullet wounds to know
That it means something different here when your dad never comes back from buying cigarettes

I saw a woman get up and spit a verse in Hebrew
About how she was stabbed at a pride rally in Israel
She got the lowest score of the evening
But the MC praised her choice to speak in her own voice

Instead of changing it for points

Which was why I didn't understand how the winner was an old white man
Doing a piece on police brutality

I couldn't tell if it was the truncheon round their necks
Or my hands down their throat
That made kids choke
I can't breathe

Running

I'm doing Couch to 5K she tells me
Her legs are limber and clad in lycra

I want to tell her that on ancient savannas
Humans would hunt their stronger, faster prey
By forcing it to run
Until it collapsed

I'm training for a Marathon she tells me
And I find my breath catching even though I'm just standing beside her

I want to tell her that Philipedes dropped dead
After his burning lungs burst
'The war is won'
On his blistered lips

Do you do any running?
Her teeth flash white as she asks me

I want to tell her that I ran the length of the country
trying to forget my childhood friends
That I walk the streets of this bottled city
On the balls of my feet
Poised
In case I meet them

I want to tell her that I wasn't too busy to go to the hospital
That I couldn't watch them turn the tap
And drain the fluid from your lungs

That I went to the pub
And left my pint foaming on the table

Do you do any running?
I want to tell her
That this morning, I ran to the lights
So I would be here
When you asked me

Terrorist Sympathiser

You have my sympathies if you load bullets into a Kalashnikov

Instead of your children into photo albums

You have my sympathies if you down bottles every night

Because they are needed for a more volatile kind of cocktail

You have my sympathies if you can no longer passively resist bullets

When they snatched your crying baby and held it down under the water

Until both your screams were silenced

And you were asked

What kind of mother would stand by and do nothing

And you replied

The soldiers were coming, and I had other children

You have my sympathies

When the boat capsized and you cursed the merciful and compassionate

For blessing you with three children but only two hands

You have my sympathies

When the bomb exploded under the truck in front of you

And you stumbled bleeding back into the barracks

Only to find the faces of your dead friends staring back at you

In the bathroom mirror

And with a fine toothed comb you scrape them out of your hair

And package them in matchboxes for their mothers

And when what’s left of you sits cold outside the high tower and you hear the clink of ivory cups as they swill blood and repeat the old lie,

It is good and noble to send someone else to die for your money

You have my sympathies

The most Dangerous Man

I am the most dangerous man in this room

I tick all of the boxes

I am young

Straight

White

And happily assigned by my doctors

If I get old I will be even worse

Because old white men are destroying the earth

I am the soldier pinned down in the plaza

And I build the tanks they throw stones at in Gaza

I am the racist that fears immigration

And I cut the legs out from his education

Make no mistake I am a vehicle of imperial hate

And it’s not beautiful or natural if I use a toy to masturbate

My sex is base

I’m an animal salivating

Dominating you is an expression of power

If I marry you

I become more likely to kill you than any stranger

I might walk you home

But I am the danger

If this disgusts you

And makes you cry out

#wellnotme

If enough of us say that then one day it won’t be

But right now

I am more likely to be killed by a man like me

Be it murder or suicide

When men don’t care

And boys don’t cry

It’s not just our victims who die

Space

When I do press-ups I feel as if I am clinging on for dear life as the planet spins through the void

Fingernails dragging canyons through granite

And when I stand at the shoreline and breathe deeply it’s not the moon that moves the tides

 When I do squats I feel as if I am Atlas holding a bowl of water full to the brim

As I shift my weight ripples spread out and islands shake

But it was a lot worse when I dropped it

I couldn’t do anything for Pangea, it was fucked

I collected the broken shards and cut my hands open forging them into new lands

When I read at night, my fingers trace the pages and these whispers spill out into the wind

I’m known to get carried away by a good book

You were a difficult baby

You kicked and screamed and cried at night

But when I hung a starlight mobile above your cradle and told you stories of the things that lived there

You slept

I never dreamed you’d use it to light your way across the seas

You’re pulling away from me now

As all teenagers do

It’s natural

You’re less interested in my old stories

And it’s amazing watching you make your own

I’m giving you

Space

But you can always find me if you like

At the edge of the world and the depths of the wild

Mountaintops and waterfalls are always a safe bet

We don’t have to talk

It’s enough to know you’re there